Where should we go? September with 2 under 2

[ShatterResistant]

Hello - can you recommend a place for us to have a lovely early September holiday with our (with luck) 4 month old and 18 month old? I'm thinking near, but warm, so Greece for example. I'd also like to have a villa with its own pool (so DH and I can relax around it while the babies are napping, ha ha), but I'd like the villa to be part of a complex/resort, so we're not completely on our own, and there will be other children for the bigger one to play with. I've found a couple of options, but they're SO pricey (4K without flights) and we don't have quite that kind of money to burn. Any experiences or advice? Thank you, oh wise ones.

You'll have others on here say the same thing - Pollensa, Mallorca all the way!

Have a look at the Sani Resort in Greece. It's a hotel rather than a villa, but they have fabulous facilities for families and they do great deals in September when the school holidays are over. Aim for Porto Sani Village if you can afford it.

I second Pollensa - lovely place. We stayed in Pollensa town so we could walk into the town at night, but drive in to the beach during the day.

I agree the Sani does look fabulous, I wanted to go there next year until I priced it up! (We have a 3 yr old and a baby so have to pay for the older one now ).

My thought was that I would avoid a villa with pool, as you will have to really watch the 18 month old. The pool will be deep (I.e. Deeper than a paddling pool) and 18 month olds don't stay still very long so I imagine it would be stressful keeping an eye on them the whole time. Our little one was really into wandering off (fast!) at that age. Yours might be different, so it's just a thought.

Have you looked at Sensatori in Crete? They have family swim up rooms where you can sunbathe on the terrace and have direct access to swimming pool. But as they are family rooms, they have safety gates to prevent toddler accessing water. Might be worth a look.

I also agree with previous poster that Pollensa is perfect with little ones!

Hmm, a lot to think about here - thank you all so much for your input. I will need more time to look into Pollensa, as it's a town, right? The Sani resort looks AMAZING, although, good God, it's still breathtakingly expensive, even in September (to be fair, I'm only really looking at the rooms with the private pool...) And the Sensatori also looks lovely. On the pool, yes, I see what you're saying, MrsS28 - I hadn't thought of that, because she's only just crawling at the moment. I was more thinking about what WE were going to do during the inevitable daytime sleeping. (I was so militant about that with her, although I don't know how I will be with 2 of them!)

Puerto pollensa. Though if I were you I'd actually rent a flat at gwel marten in st Ives. It's a block of flats at Carbis bay, you can rent them rough Carbis bay holidays or st Ives holidays (lanhams).

We went there every year for years when ours were little. It was heaven, they have a huge window overlooking the ocean, parking (which is really hard to find in the centre of st Ives) and they are near to the beach (uphill climb on the way back!).

I bloody love Gael marten flats, we rent a cottage in the centre of st Ives these days but back in the day we used to put our little ones down to sleep, open the wine and just watch the ocean. Fab.

Insotel Punta prima in menorca. Fab all round. We went last year with our then 1 yr old. Would thoroughly recommend.

With First Choice I should add!

One of the Greek Mark Warner does 2 bedroom family suites with it's own pool. I think it's the one in Rhodes.

I second Insotel Punta Prima. Great kids club facilities and the child care staff have been great (went there for last 2 summer holidays).